“We can’t appreciate and know where we’re going in this world without knowing and appreciating where we’ve been,” said Sycamore Mayor Ken Mundy.

Mundy was a featured speaker at the The Sycamore Historical Society’s annual cemetery walk and explained to those that attended why learning about the community’s history is so important.

The Elmwood Cemetery Heritage Walk, held at Elmwood Cemetery, 901 S. Cross St., included a brief history of the cemetery and its gates as well as profiles on some of the people buried there who had a deep impact on the Sycamore community.

While walking up to the cemetery, the large iron gates are impossible to ignore.

Volunteer Herb Holderman said in 1978 the gates were put on the National Register of Historical Places, and according to the Illinois Historic Structures Survey in 1973, these particular gates are the best representative of iron cemetery gates in the state.

A total of seven profiles were featured during the event including that of the Buzzell family who were early settlers of DeKalb and Kane counties, and still have family in the area that attended the event. Volunteer Linda Holderman also presented a profile on Esther Mae Nesbitt, Sycamore’s first female war veteran after serving in World War II.

In addition to the personal profiles, the event included a presentation of Soldier’s Row, which contains 144 Civil War veterans and three general officers. Also, the Veterans’ Memorial Brick Project was featured, and the Old Mausoleum which was constructed in 1917 with 120 crypts.

The underlying theme throughout all the presentations was the history that existed there, and how these people shaped Sycamore.

“We have an appreciation for what happens from this day forward by learning about the people that are here in their last resting place … who made great sacrifices for what Sycamore was in the 1830s, ’40s and ’50s,” Mundy said.